Kansas has an increasing need for graduates skilled in second languages | Commentary

Wichita State University’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is currently engaged in a debate about whether to reduce the number of language courses that students are required to take to earn a bachelor’s degree in fields like political science, history or English. The impetus behind some departments’ interest in reducing the language requirement is that students want to be able to graduate as quickly as possible.

Recently, a colleague pointed out to me that the basic language courses (the first three semesters, currently required for a Bachelor of Arts in most fields in LAS), are essentially remedial, since they are only needed by students who have not studied languages throughout K-12 education. Unfortunately, most Kansas students do not begin to take language classes until high school, and second language learners who take four years of a language in high school may or may not test out of a first semester course in that language at Wichita State.

In a state whose population is 12% Hispanic, with three counties where Latinos make up the majority, there is an increasing need for college graduates with skills in Spanish and other languages — like Vietnamese, Arabic and Mandarin — in a broad range of fields.

Take political science majors, for example: monolingual political leaders are not able to communicate with large percentages of their constituents, lawyers have difficulties representing the perspective of clients whose languages they do not speak, and monolingual journalists are limited in their abilities to represent the voices of potential sources. Many NGOs that might hire students with a degree in political science would prefer their staff and administrators to be bilingual.

When children and young adults are not provided with the skills they need to include multilingual voices in their future work, an injustice is done to the diverse communities of the state. Furthermore, the intercultural understanding achieved through world language study is fundamental for productive communication in our culturally diverse nation.

While the United States is highly multilingual and multicultural, educational language policies are often based on monolingual ideologies, belief systems that primarily value proficiency in the dominant language of the nation and devalue skills in other languages. Liberal Arts and Science majors who do not want to study a language are likely influenced by the very monolingual ideologies that language education challenges. To be able to serve their communities justly, these ideologies need to be challenged.

While Wichita State University has an important role in producing multilingual college graduates, the process needs to start much earlier than college. Language courses should be mandatory starting in kindergarten, and, when possible, students who start school with skills in languages other than English should be provided with programs that allow them to develop their skills in those languages. This happens in dual language immersion programs like Wichita’s Horace Mann Dual Language Magnet, where some of the subject-area classes are taught in Spanish and students learn academic content while simultaneously developing their language skills.

Students who study a language throughout K-12 (or better yet attend a dual language education program) easily test out of the beginning language sequence at Wichita State.

When students who have already developed literacy skills in an additional language attend Wichita State or another Kansas institution of higher education, they bring with them a foundation on which to build the skills they need to communicate with Kansans of diverse linguistic backgrounds in personal and professional contexts. Intermediate language courses provide the opportunity to develop these skills.

After students complete or test out of the beginning language sequence, they can decide whether they want to continue their language study. However, those who have not attained an intermediate skill level in a language other than English in K-12 should be required to complete the basic language sequence at the university to prepare them to contribute to an increasingly multilingual and multicultural society.